


Of Coloring Books and Plushies

by dean_colette



Series: Space Between Us [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5-year-old Keith, Angst, Family, Gen, I just want to write smol keith, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Pre-Voltron: Legendary Defender, The klance is in the end and it's like 100 words but tagging it just in case, and also talk a bit about his mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 09:43:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12504552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dean_colette/pseuds/dean_colette
Summary: “What’s this?”Mom looked at it contemplating before her face broke in a smile. “That? That’s a hippopotamus?”“Hippopopomus?”“Nope. It’s hi-ppo-po-tamus,” Mom corrected, enunciating the words slowly.“Hippopamus,” Keith tried again, scowling when it didn’t sound correct.Mom laughed and smoothed his eyebrows by her fingertips. “Most people call it hippo.”-(Keith was five when he first saw a hippo.)





	Of Coloring Books and Plushies

**Author's Note:**

> The Klance is very mild here. It's in the end and it's less than 100 words but have fun still :D  
> Of course, this was inspired by the Voltron handbook implying that Keith likes Hippopotamus. Belated happy birthday, dear! I got sick and wasn't able to finish his birthday fic on time and by the time I finish it, it probably isn't a birthday fic anymore xD Oh well.  
> Have fun!

“Mom!” five-year old Keith called out as he spotted his Mom by the gates of the school. He was smiling widely, hands waving frantically like he was trying to get her attention. Which he had. She was smiling and walking towards him, meeting him halfway. Keith ran even faster, his backpack wiggling as he did so. “Mom!”

“I’m here,” Mom said, once they reached each other. She crouched and kissed his cheek, then, shrugged Keith’s bag from his back and sling it on one shoulder. Keith watched in awe. He had to carry that on his back and with both of his shoulder while his Mom could just hold it in one.

“What did I tell you about running?” his Mom asked, gently.

Keith frowned, remembering what she told him. When he did remember, he pursed his lips. “To not?”

Mom raised a delicate brow but her expression wasn’t scolding. “And what did you do?”

“Run?” Keith supported, drawling out the word.

Mom chuckled, ruffling Keith’s hair. “Be careful, okay? You might get hurt from running.”

Standing up, she held Keith’s hand and started walking. Greeting and nodding every familiar faces. Keith watched her. She was always smiling and polite to people. Keith wondered how she remembered all their names. “I’m strong.”

“You are,” Mom said. Keith just hummed a happy tune at that.

One thing Keith noticed whenever they were walking in the street, was that his Mom would always walk on the side near the road. When he asked her about this, and said that he wanted to walk on that side, too, his Mom just shook her head and said, “ _To protect you. And no can do. Someday you can, but not now, ‘kay?”_

Keith didn’t understand what she said but he didn’t push.

“How was your day?”

“Teacher asked us to draw.”

“Was it fun?” Mom darted his gaze to him, but she quickly brought it back to the road.

“Eh,” Keith answered, scrunching his nose.

“Eh?”

“It was fun, but we always draw. I’m not good at it.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“That I’m not good at it?”

“Yes, because I know you and I know you can do everything if you put your mind to it.” Mom smiled. Tapping Keith’s chin with her finger.

Keith didn’t know why but that made him happy. His face broke into a toothy grin and he swayed their intertwined hands.

-

A few minutes after, they reached home. It wasn’t far from school. Mom said that was the reason why they moved here.

Dad was always not home until evening so no one was home when they entered the house. Keith hurriedly kicked off his shoes and was about to run to the stairs when he heard his Mom. “No running on the stairs.”

“’Kay!” Keith responded, slowing down his steps.

“Go get change. I’ll prepare dinner then help you with your homework.”

“’Kay!”

-

Staring at the clattered mess of coloring books on the coffee table, Keith picked each of them to see if he could still color some. He said he wasn’t good at it but Mom said he could be if he put his mind to it, so he was gonna try again.

“For Mom,” Keith muttered.

“For me?” A voice behind him called. Mom placed a plate of cookies and a glass of juice on the free space on the table. Sitting beside him on the carpet, she nudged Keith’s shoulder. “What’s that?”

“I want to color because you said I can be good at it,” Keith answered, not taking his eyes off the coloring books. His hand reached for a cookie and ate it in four bites.

“Oh, I bought you a new one.” Reaching below the coffee table, Mom presented him a book. “Ta-da!”

Keith grappled at it with his short hands. Putting it closer to him, he stared at the cover and read the title. “A-ni-mals.”

“Yep. These are animals. I’m sure you’d love them.”

Keith opened it and flip through the pages. He already knew most of them. Puppy, cat, bunny, horse…they were all familiar until his eyes caught sight of the one in the last page. Looking up at Mom with wide eyes, he showed her the last page. “What’s this?”

Mom looked at it contemplating before her face broke in a smile. “That? That’s a hippopotamus?”

“Hippopopomus?”

“Nope. It’s hi-ppo-po-tamus,” Mom corrected, enunciating the words slowly.

“Hippopamus,” Keith tried again, scowling when it didn’t sound correct.

Mom laughed and smoothed his eyebrows by her fingertips. “Most people call it hippo.”

“Oh.” Bringing it closer to his face, he asked, “I don’t see this anywhere. No one wants them as pets? Are they bad?”

“They’re not. But hippos need extra care that normal homes can’t provide. They’re not bad.”

“Where can I see them?”

“They need water so they live near rivers or lakes.”

“Will I see one in the bathroom?!”

“Sorry, honey, but no.”

Keith pouted. Mom leaned in and pressed his cheek against Keith’s head. She lightly pinched his cheeks, as if getting rid of the pout. “Are they cute?”

“They are. What are their colors?”

“I’ll show you.”

With her other hand, she reached for her phone and not a moment later, she showed Keith her phone’s screen. “Here.”

Keith stared at it but didn’t lean in. Mom said he shouldn’t look so close in the computer. “They have two colors? Pink and brown?”

“Yes. Very good, Keith. You recognized them. Cute, aren’t they?”

Keith nodded. “I wanna see one.”

“Hm, I don’t think they have one in the zoo in town but we can go out of town to see them sometime? You like that?”

Mom raised her head from Keith and Keith whipped his head to look at her. Nodding vigorously, he said, “Yes, yes, yes, please!”

“Alright, dear.” Mom ruffled his hair. “Do you want to color it now?”

“Okay!”

-

Keith had been highly invested in coloring and even trying to draw hippos since then. He liked them. They were cute and big. He asked his mom if hippos would let him ride on their backs, she laughed and said that maybe once he was older and stronger.

Keith couldn’t wait to grow older.

Mom had printed him line arts of them for him. Keith knew that they only had two colors, but he liked to experiment. He’d color it blue, green, black, then he’d show it to his Mom. Each time she’d smile and give him appreciative words. Keith figured he was doing great.

He loved his Mom.

-

One day, when Mom got him from school, she was holding something on her back. Keith couldn’t see it and he desperately tiptoed and tried to peek before her Mom presented it to him.

It was a hippo plushy.

When Keith saw it, he stretched his arms and grabbed it from his Mom’s grasp. After looking at it upside down, seeing if it was the same as he saw in the pictures (they were a bit different, but it didn’t make it any less cute), he raised his head and stared at his Mom. “Thanks, Mom!”

As usual, Mom smiled back.

Keith refused to let go of the hippo. He was clutching tightly it with both hands against his chest.

Mom had to carry him back home.

She really was strong.

-

One week after, Keith overheard his parents. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but from the vibrations, they were shouting. Were they fighting? They didn’t fight much. Keith had never saw them fight ever, so what could be the problem?

He wanted to knock and ask them what was wrong, but his parents and teachers always tell him that they shouldn’t meddle in ‘adult problems’. (Keith would frown each time. He was a kid, yes. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t think.)

But for once, Keith decided to follow their advice.

That night, Keith stayed in his room, clutching his hippo plushy.

He pretended to be asleep even when he heard the light creak of the opening door.

-

After that, Keith had noticed something with his Mom. She was still always smiling and warm, but when he thought Keith wasn’t looking, she would look away and sigh.

Other times, she would stare at Keith, her eyes empty. But whenever Keith would look up to her, she would grace him with a smile.

And Keith would frown.

His mother would smooth it down.

And they’d pretend that there nothing wrong going on.

-

“Keith?”

A light shaking of his shoulder woke Keith up. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes, trying to adjust on the darkness of the room. He saw Mom who was seating on his bed, smiling at him. “Mom?”

“Sorry I woke you. Can Mom talk to you for a moment?”

Keith nodded. Mom held his hands with her much larger ones. Keith could feel the slight shivering of her hands. He squeezed his grip to her. Mom squeezed back.

“You’re a smart kid, Keith. I’m the luckiest mother in the whole universe for having you as my child. Remember that Mom loves you, okay?”

Keith nodded. “Is something wrong?”

“You’ve always been so sharp. Noticing things that most people your age wouldn’t.” She was rubbing her thumbs on the back of Keith’s hands.

“Mom?”

Mom’s voice cracked slightly when she continued. “I hope you can forgive Mom. She isn’t perfect and holds a lot of secrets that she couldn’t tell you yet. But I love you, okay? So much. Everything I do, and everything that I will do, I’m doing for your sake.”

One of Keith’s hand slipped from his mother’s clutch. Raising it, he touched Mom’s cheek. It was wet. “I don’t understand, Mom. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Sorry, this is probably too much for you. Can I sleep here tonight?”

Keith’s attention shifted from his question to her Mom’s request.

Smiling widely, Keith nodded eagerly. “Yes, please!” He scooted until there was enough space for his Mom to climb in.

Laying his head against Mom’s arm, he asked, “Is someone bad to you?”

Mom reached and wrapped an arm around Keith, pulling him tightly to her. “You could say that.”

“I’ll protect you.” Reaching an arm, Keith patted his Mom’s back. The same way people in movies do whenever they do something cool.

“Yeah?” Keith could hear the smile on her tone.

“Yeah! Mom always do it to me. So I should do it, too, right?”

Mom laughed softly. “You should protect the people you love. We should.”

Silence stretched after that.

“Let’s sleep now?”

“Okay!”

And they closed their eyes. Embracing one another. One, for comfort. And the other, Keith didn’t know, for goodbye.

A few hours later, Keith felt the shift of the mattress and hands lifting his arms. Dazedly, Keith grappled on the bed until someone tucked his hippo plushy to him. With half-lidded eyes, he saw his Mom leaned in and pressed one lingering kiss against his forehead.

_Where was Mom going?_

The last thing Keith saw before closing his eyes was his Mom turning his back at him.

But it was okay.

Tomorrow, he’d see her again. With her soft smile and twinkling eyes. Embracing Keith against her warmth. Teaching him which parts to color in his coloring book.

Keith smiled and embraced the plushy tighter.

Tomorrow, she’d come back to Keith.

-

She never came back.

-

Vast. Dark. Exciting. Terrifying.

Those were how Keith would describe space. A year of living far from earth- far from its galaxy- he should be used to it by now. But no, he could never get used to the wide stretched of the endless darkness.

It wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

“Keith?” someone called out. Keith turned his head to face it.

Lance.

He didn’t hear him enter the control room.

“Yeah?” Keith asked, walking towards Lance and meeting him halfway on the center.

“It’s almost dinner. Hunk cooked something for us. Join us?”

“And you’re the one who came here to get me?” Keith asked, his eyebrow raised but a grin on his face.

“Hey!”

They started walking towards the dining area. Keith looked at Lance, deciding if he should, before asking, “Lance, what’s your favorite animal?”

“Hm? Sharks, I guess. What’s with the random question?”

“Nothing. Just wondering.”

“Hm.”

Silence came after that. Nothing but the sounds of their footsteps echoing through the walls.

“Mine’s hippo. Reminds me of my mom.”

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Lance looked at him. Then, he felt the brush of fingers on the back of his hand. “Wanna tell me about it?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](https://s-h-a-r-p-shooter.tumblr.com/)


End file.
